Various approaches have been proposed for monitoring, simulating, or testing web sites. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,966 B1 (Howard, et al., Aug. 21, 2001), “Method and System for Emulating Web Site Traffic to Identify Web Site Usage Patterns.” However, this example addresses substantially different problems (problems of simulation and hypothetical phenomena), and thus is significantly different from the present invention. Other examples include U.S. Pat. No. 6,078,956 (Bryant, et al., Jun. 20, 2000) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,254 (Maddalozzo, et al., Jul. 28, 1998). Other examples include services available from vendors such as Atesto Technologies Inc., Keynote Systems, and Mercury Interactive Corporation. These services may involve a script that runs on a probe computer. The examples mentioned above do not necessarily provide means for directing problem-solving efforts.
A wide variety of valuable services are provided through client-server applications, so proper performance of these applications may be very important. When a problem occurs, lack of useful information can hamper efforts to restore the proper performance of a client-server application. These applications may involve many hardware and software components in a network environment, so it may be difficult to quickly identify a component that is causing a problem. Thus there is a need for systems and methods that provide information to properly focus problem-solving efforts for client-server applications, including but not limited to web sites and web services.